Lone Tree on West Mtn

On Lone Tree and in the Poison drainage there weren’t any recent wet loose avalanches. South winds in the moderate range kept slopes a little cooler…there were a few, 2-3 day old D-1 wet loose point releases in the snow surface on NE aspects below cornices and old rollerballs on the surface, all of which is likely from initial warming last Thursday. Travel on skis was good due to a very supportable surface crust on East, South, and West aspects: below the surface, only the upper 3-4” was frozen. Below the thick crust the snowpack is saturated and isn’t freezing overnight. Hasty pit on NE aspect of lone tree resulted in hard shear, quality 2-3 in the upper 8”. On the surface, in the shade, there was a small, 2-3mm surface hoar. The Crust at the old snow interface is degrading, one and a half 2 feet down. South aspects ski well until noon at 6800 feet it started to get sticky. There was small wet sloughing in the upper 2 inches of the snowpack on steep solar aspects while skiing. Boot penetration while transitioning at 6998 on a SE aspect at noon was 22cm, just about 2” below the boot top. Shortly after while climbing I had small collapses in the upper 3 inches of the frozen snowpack in a southeast aspect at 7100’.